May 18, 2010

For any TV watchers out there, if you haven’t seen Modern Family yet, you need to.

It is a hilarious show on ABC, new this season, and renewed for a second. Besides The Office, it is definitely my favorite show.

The official story goes like this:

Today’s American families come in all different shapes and sizes. Shot from the perspective of an unseen documentary filmmaker, this comedy is a modern look at the complications that come with being a family in 2009.

The show focuses on three families, all part of the same extended family. The show generally splits screen time fairly equally between each of the three families, who for the most part interact with members of their own immediate families, but generally meet members of the extended family throughout an episode for parties, sporting events, and the like, much as a real-life extended family living in the same city would. Here is a brief introduction to the three groups:

Jay, Gloria, Manny

Jay is the patriarch of the whole group. Father to Claire & Mitchell, Jay is a successful businessman who in his later years has re-married the younger, beautiful Colombian Gloria, who brought her incredibly-mature-for-his-age son Manny to the family.

Despite his youth, Manny is incredibly talented, and the writers definitely use him well. In a recent episode, the well-dressed young buck stated after a shoe shine at the airport, “I’m just a boy trying to bring style back to travel.”

Phil, Claire, Haley, Alex, Luke

Phil is a real estate agent, while Claire is a stay-at-home mom, raising three children. This was a clever move by the writers, because both Phil and Claire are able to spend quite a bit of screen time interacting with each other as well as their kids. When I first started watching, I thought Phil was totally goofy, and Claire was the one that kept things running, but after watching the show, it has become clear that both Phil and Claire have no shortage of quirks, and it really is through their combined strengths that they are able to keep their families going.

Haley is a girly girl, while her younger sister Alex is a real academic, and they are constantly giving each other a hard time about their respective talents. Luke, the baby of the family at 10, is accident-prone and enjoys the simple things in life. As Phil and Claire explained, (Phil) “He’s one of those kids, you get him a gift and all he wants to do is play with the box.” (Claire) “Yea, one year we actually just got him a box! A really nice box!” (Phil) “And we made the mistake of putting it in a gift bag.” (Claire) “So he played with the gift bag!”

A few favorite quotes from Phil:

“Every realtor’s just a ninja in a blazer. The average burglar breaks in and leaves clues everywhere. But not me. I’m completely clueless.”

“The iPad comes out on my actual birthday. It’s like Steve Jobs and God got together to say, ‘We love you, Phil.’”

“‘Mother’ is part of the word. You never hear of anyone being sfathered to death.”

If all that wasn’t enough to make you love the Dunphys already, then here is the big kicker:

Claire is played by Julie Bowen, who all you LOST fans will recognize as Jack’s ex-wife Sarah.

So yea, you need to watch this show.

Mitchell, Cameron, Lily

Mitchell and Cameron are partners, and they have adopted a daughter Lily from Vietnam. Mitchell is a lawyer, while Cameron is a stay-at-home dad. Cameron is definitely another of my favorite characters. He played football as a lineman at the University of Illinois, is a clown, plays the drums, loves Costco, and is a small-town-hick at heart. The conversations that Mitchell and Cameron have are nothing but hilarious. Lily is a doll, and there are frequently episodes in which she gets dressed up. Which is adorable.

In short, this show is amazing, and you need to watch it. Check it out on Hulu, ABC’s site, or order the Season 1 DVD!

The season finale is tomorrow night, and here’s a sampler (you need to disable ad-block plus if this doesn’t work):

Humor, TV

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